Foamers, creamers and topping bases may be described as fat-containing powders. Examples are beverage creamers for e.g. coffee or tea, also known as coffee or tea whiteners; beverage foamers such as cappuccino foamers; and topping bases, which can be used to prepare whipped food products, such as whipped desserts.
These kinds of ingredients contain fats, proteins and carbohydrates in application-specific pre-determined amounts. An overview is given by A. Tamime, “Dairy powders and concentrated milk products,” (2009), Chapter 8. There, it is mentioned that the carbohydrate component can be formulated from glucose syrups, maltodextrins and sucrose, with proportions adjusted to target a specific sweetness level (page 271).
However, in the art, the use of sucrose in high amounts is typically avoided because of its known hygroscopicity. Due to this hygroscopic behavior, sucrose causes lumping during processing, and stoppage of the spray-drier. Also, high amounts of sucrose could readily yield the spray-dried powder with an unattractive sticky and caking appearance. In the art, the preferred bulking agents are therefore selected from corn syrup solids, maltodextrin and various dextrose equivalents, starches, and mixtures thereof. Corn syrups are particularly preferred bulking agents because of their cost and processability. Non-limiting examples are provided in US 2004/0156979, EP 1.074.181, U.S. Pat. No. 4,438,147, their contents herein incorporated by reference.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,414,980 describes a process for preparing a dry topping mix which comprises in combination the steps of mixing the desired ingredients including a portion of the total amount of sweetening agent to form a liquid dispersion, spraying said liquid dispersion into a drying chamber, introducing the remaining portion of the sweetening agent in a substantially dry state into said drying chamber resulting in admixture of said sprayed liquid dispersion and said remaining portion of said sweetening agent and drying said admixture to provide a dry homogeneous topping composition.
Examples I to III of U.S. Pat. No. 3,414,980 describe the preparation of a dry topping mix by spraying a liquid dispersion containing 27.4 wt. % hydrogenated coconut oil; 28.4 wt. % sweetening agent (20 wt. % sugar and 8.4 wt. % corn syrup solids); 4.2 wt. % caseinate; 7.5 wt. % emulsifier and 30 wt. % water and concurrently introducing dry granular sugar. In Example I of U.S. Pat. No. 3,414,980 dry granular sugar was metered to provide 16.5 wt. % of the total sweetening agent, resulting in a dry topping composition containing 48.7 percent sugar. In Example III dry granular sugar was metered at a rate to provide 6 wt. % of total sugar in the dry topping mix, resulting in a mix containing 42.4 by weight of total sugar.
In Example II the preparation of a dry topping mix containing 43.8 wt. % sweetening agent is described. In Example II it is stated that dry granular sugar was metered at a rate so as to provide 80 wt. % of the total sweetening agent in the dry topping mix. However, it can be calculated that in order to prepare a dry topping mix containing 43.8 wt. % sweetening agent, dry granular sugar must be metered at 8.0 wt. % and not at 80 wt. % of the total sweetening agent. In column 4, lines 26-29 of U.S. Pat. No. 3,414,980 it is observed that the total amount of sweetening agent in a dry topping mix varies from about 30-50 wt. %. Since metering of dry granular sugar to provide 80 wt. % of the total sweetening agent would yield a dry mix containing 77 wt. % sweetener this is another clear indication that “80 percent by weight” in Example II should have read “8 percent by weight” or “8.0 percent by weight”.